Observeris

Friday, February 2, 2018

In an interesting juxtaposition, this morning's Mercury News front page featured a story about how 90 percent of the housing California needs isn't getting built, and in another section, a story about how Apple's mothership donut was built with no thought to where the 12,500 people who work there will live.

Santa Clara's own marquee tech campus, the NVIDIA flying saucer, was also built without any thought to where the people who work there will live. It wasn't part of the conversation when it was conceived about 10 years ago, even though we were talking about a housing crisis then, too.

Instead, the Santa Clara City Council has made a u-turn on housing development—surrendering public policy to the anti-development faction because that's the one that yells the loudest.

Remember how John Sobrato got—literally—shouted out of the City Council Chambers for offering to build a $1 million supported housing-for-the-unhoused complex on Monroe?

The Council micro-managed Irvine's Mission Town Center 2016 proposal into a risky venture as far as the developer was concerned. Prometheus—a big donor to an independent expenditure committee for Gillmor-aligned candidates—has another proposal to bring forward. But it's not much different from the Irvine proposal. The only difference is that the Viso family, which owns the land, will probably want more for the lease—making it even harder to pencil out.

More recently the Council stifled the Moonlight Lanes project, leaving that property to provide low-cost housing for rats. Then there's the Mariani project that likely won't get get a hearing for another generation.

Related's City Place has yet to put a shovel in the ground. And if Mission Town Center's 400 apartments had the anti-development brigade in hysterics, imagine how far Genzon/Kylli's plan for 35-story apartment towers on "Yahoo acres" (now vacant for a decade) will go over.

And this, I've been told without sarcasm, is responsive government in action.

Council Members and their anti-development cheerleaders would strenuously deny the charge of being anti-development and say they're all for the right development. The beauty of the "right development" is that, like J.K. Rowling's wizarding world, it's invisible to the rest of the world.
As that's an impossibility here in the reality-based world, we continue—and will continue for the foreseeable future, I'm betting—to enjoy the quaint charm of mid-century strip malls and used car lots on El Camino.

Our children, young educated professionals, aren't yelling. They're not at City Council meetings because they took jobs in Dallas, Indianpolis or Pittsburgh where they can afford to buy a house, according to Carson Bruno at Real Clear Markets. So they don't care if Silicon Valley slowly fades into the economic sunset. They're willing to pay higher property taxes (and they do) for a decent home rather than share a $3,500/month one-bedroom apartment with four people to pay the rent.

But I wander.

We keep hearing Silicon Valley has a housing crisis. And the reason is pretty simple: we haven't built enough housing. Not only that, we're make things worse by building even less housing than we did as recently as a year ago.

Joint Venture Silicon Valley's 2016 "Silicon Valley Index" reports that the number of new residential construction permits dropped more than 50 percent between 2014 and 2015—from 11,000 to slightly less than 6,000. The percentage of multifamily construction dropped 20 percent. In that time, Silicon Valley built only 22 percent of the needed moderate income housing but 130 percent of the high income housing target, according to the Assoc. of Bay Area Governments (ABAG).

This isn't some kind of inevitable catastrophe like a tsunami or an earthquake. It's largely of our own making. Only one factor, limited land, has passed out of our control. The rest are in our power to change.

First, there's the California Environmental Quality Act—an equal opportunity tool for obstructing development and a lucrative revenue source for specialist attorneys with no end of tricks up their sleeves for using CEQA to the advantage of developers, unions and NIMBYs.

In a textbook example of the law of unintended consequences, CEQA is most effective at obstructing its ostensible goal of improving environmental quality.

The most frequently challenged projects are transit-oriented, urban infill, those using renewable energy and housing, according to Elana Eden at Panetizen. Then there's local governments' preference for commercial development with its higher revenues and lower service needs. And last but not least, are vociferous self-absorbed NIMBYs who, quite simply, want to freeze time in an imagined past -- agriculture is very picturesque to those who never had to do the backbreaking work and face the financial risk.

The cost of obstructionism is our economy.

In a 2015 California Legislative Office report, the LAO laid out the causes and costs of California's stratospheric real estate prices and rents in this infographic.

There's a simple answer: build more housing. In won't be politically easy, now that the opponents of development have captured the spotlight. But what's worse: the noise from 100 complainers now or being judged 'guilty' by history for smothering the goose that laid the golden silicon eggs?

Thursday, January 11, 2018

Ro Khanna: Doing the People’s Business by Finding the Common Ground

By Carolyn Schuk

Many politicians can say little in a lot of words. But it’s a rare politician who can say a lot in a few words. Santa Clara's Congressman Ro Khanna (D-District 17) is one of them. Recently, he took some time from a jam-packed day to talk with the Weeklyabout what Congress Members do all day—contrary to popular opinion, it isn't talking to lobbyists—and what it takes to be effective for constituents when your party is in the minority.

Friday, December 30, 2016

Imagine a
world without light. In our modern setting we are surrounded by light. We flip
a switch to repeat the miracle of “let there be light” — whenever and wherever
we want it. We have to drive miles from our urban homes to experience the truly
dark night sky.

But for most
of human history people have lived in what the historian William Manchester
described as “a world lit only by fire.”

For
our ancestors who lived without modern electricity, the growing shortness of
mid-winter days was of profound consequence. There is always the fear that
maybe — just maybe — old Sol will continue to shrink into complete blackness.
So it is not surprising that all cultures have midwinter festivals where light
and dark figure as central symbols.

Christmas
has the star of Bethlehem, Divali has its rows of lighted lamps, Kwanzaa its
seven candles representing the seven principles. Northern Europeans celebrate
St. Lucy’s Day on Dec. 12 with young St. Lucy Queens in candle-lit crowns.

The
Chanukah Menorah certainly shares light and flame with these holidays, but
Chanukah also brings a sense of movement and liberation to the mid-winter
celebration that is unique.

Chanukah
celebrates the victory in 176 BCE by an
army of Jewish rebels, the Maccabees, over the tyrannical king of the
Selucid-Greek empire, Antiochus IV (also known as "Epimane" –
"madman") who drove the Syrians out of Judea.

Upon
their victory, the Macabees returned to the temple in Jerusalem to rededicate
it and relight the Menorah. They could find only one
small flask of oil, enough to light the Menorah for just a single day.

But miraculously the oil did not run out and the lamps shone
brightly for eight days. The following year, the festival of Chanukah was
officially proclaimed as an eight-day celebration, some say symbolizing the
victory over persecution. One candle of the Menorah is lit each night of the
celebration.

And that is where Chanukah brings movement to the mid-winter.
Chanukah begins in the dark with the lighting of one candle. By the eighth day,
all eight candles burn in a domestic world daily growing brighter. And the
larger world will soon grow brighter as we pass the longest night and day
begins its journey to overtake night.

During
the ancient Romans' winter solstice celebration, the Saturnalia, the freeman’s
hat was worn by freemen and slaves alike. On the first day of the seven-day
festival the bonds that tied the feet of Saturn’s statue were removed to
symbolize the god’s liberation from his underworld domain. The New Year was
called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti – day of the unconquerable sun.

Victories over modern oppressors begin with lighting a single
candle. And that goes well beyond any single tradition or religion.

Right now the world seems darker that it has for decades. Democide
– a word coined by political scientist Rudolph Rummel in the 1970s – is the
best descriptive of the unspeakable catastrophe that has overtaken the Middle
East. Vladimir Putin has reintroduced Pan-Slavist ideology to the world.
Americans may be facing an object lesson of Plato's theory of the stages of government from oligarchy to populism to ultimate tyranny.

Yet, in our lifetime we have also seen events like the fall of
Berlin Wall that tell us that no tyranny is forever. Not Vladimir Putin's. Not
ISIS'. Not even one that many fear Donald Trump may bring to the U.S. on January 20.

An old gospel hymn says, “This little light
of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.” Asking readers' pardon in advance for so freely mixing religious metaphors: As it happened more than 2,100 years ago in Jerusalem, and as the Gospel of John philosophically expressed the victory of an eternal light, "The light shines the
darkness and the darkness has not overcome it."

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

It's that time of year again, when we come down to the
holiday gift-giving wire empty-handed. As a major-league waster of time on the Interent, I can help you answer that question. I've culled the twilight
zone of cyber space to bring you the crème de la crème of gifts that will make
you unforgettable – and possibly an anathema – to the recipients.

Although many Millennials eschew wristwatches for smartphones, the right wristwatch can be a useful social asset.

Think Geek's (thinkgeek.com) Back to the Future Flux
Capacitor Wristwatch tells you the time, sort of. But the real plus of this
timepiece is its time travel feature and the LCD that tells you what year
you've landed in. Write from the future when you find work.

Big Bang Theory fans on your list will thrill to Uncommon
Good's (www.uncommongoods.com)
equation watch. When the conversation wilts, just tell folks what time it is,
and find out how many people in your intimate circle remember what the absolute
value of i is.

The gal in your life will thank you for this handy-dandy swiss-army-knife of a barrette, also sold by Think Geek. It's a wrench! It's a bottle opener! It's a screwdriver! It's a nail file! And the best part is that you don't need a pocket to keep it in. When it's not in use, just use it instead of that bobby pin to keep your hair out of your eyes.

Novelty
holiday wearables is a gift category that never fails to yield a rich crop of
new offerings annually. The Oriental Trading Company (orientaltrading.com) is one of our favorite places
for unique holiday items and, once again, delivers the goods.

Nothing says "Don we now our gay apparel" like
OTC's Christmas tree hat, which comes complete with ornaments, tinsel and a
tree – head? – top star. Plus, cover with black felt, add some green face
paint, and you're all set to masquerade as the Wicked Witch of the West next
Halloween.

The
holidays wouldn't be complete without that adventure in ornamental excess, the
holiday sweater. OTC's Chanukah sweater, shown with the ever-popular necktie
t-shirt, will light up eight nights all by itself.

Honorable mention in the holiday sweater department goes to our friends at Think Geek, whose holiday sweater suit was a hit with us last year. This year's featured sweater looks like the kind of cozy snowflake design your granny would knit for you. But look closely. Those snowflakes are actually
spiders. Knitters, make your own with qerpattern.com's spider-cable sweater
pattern.

Holiday sweaters aren't just for wearing. Bring that
over-the-top meme to your holiday décor with OTC's holiday sweater ornaments.
In four different eye-crossing red and green patterns, these ornaments give the
extra gift of making guests think they've already had too much to drink, encouraging
them to stop drinking your 12 year-old scotch and go home early.

Outdoor
décor is another holiday favorite. This year let Santa know exactly where to
land with this lit-up TARDIS lawn ornament from Think Geek. (That's "Time
And Relative Dimension In Space" machine for those of you not versed in
Dr. Who lore). With its special invisibility feature, perhaps it can effect
your escape from this year's dreaded holiday conversational gambit, "Boy,
this election was really something!"

And speaking of the election, one thing we all now share is
a feeling that civilization as we know it is doomed. Trump voters felt like
that before the election, while Clinton voters found themselves infected in the
early hours of Nov. 9. Here are some gift ideas for the onset of Armageddon.

Nothing
says, "I care about you" like the gift of NukePill's (www.nukepills.com) Radiacwash Family Radiation
Decontamination Kit. With everything you need to decontaminate a family of
four, the kit is packaged in a patented Indestructo box, designed to survive
the blast.

Urban Survival's playing cards offer 52 tips on surviving the collapse of civilization These strictures offer clues to the worldview of the apocalyptically-inclined. "Keep quiet about your level of preparedness," and "Light, sound and smell can attract desperate neighbors," "Monitor/join [groups] as they're being formed to avoid being a target." "Pull this deck of cards out at your next poker night and see where the conversation goes!" says the manufacturer, which is also an NRA business partner.

There's
no better way to wrap a cornucopia of apocalypse than Just Camo's (www.justcamo.com) camouflage gift wrap, which
comes in four seasonal patterns as well as white (for artic maneuvers). Matching
ribbon and bows available.

Santa Clara Weekly

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